Speaking at the Midwest UX Conference

This past weekend, I learned that the proposal for my presentation on mobile UX design was accepted for inclusion in the program for the Midwest UX Conference, happening April 9-10 in Columbus, OH. Huzzah! I am honored and excited at the opportunity to talk about some of the specific technologies and techniques used to create great mobile user experiences. And I’m looking forward to meeting other UX peeps and learning a whole hell of a lot in the span of just two days.

While the Midwest UX web site has the complete and detailed program, below is the description for my talk, one of four mobile-themed presentations happening as part of the same afternoon session.

Saturday, April 9

Afternoon Session A 2:10 pm – 4:00 pm

Adaptive Mobile UX Design / 2:30pm 2:50pm

Whether putting pen to paper or mouse pointer to blank canvas in your wireframing program of choice, most of us still pick an unconscious 1024 x 768 pixel resolution, landscape-orientation starting point for our designs. And if we need to design for mobile, it’s often on a completely separate track that uses a limited subset of the content and functionality we plan for in the “main web site”.

But with smartphones now projected to be in the hands of half of all Americans by the end of this year (citation) it’s vital that user experience architects understand some of the mobile-centric techniques and technologies that developers are already experimenting with.

In this presentation, UX professionals will see specific examples of HTML5 and CSS3 that have greatest impact on the user experience, including:

HTML5 form types used to create smart soft keyboard UIs

CSS media queries that serve up custom versions of the same page, making them truly responsive to any screen size and resolution

Device-orientation and location-awareness technologies that add a context layer to the experience of using a site or application

Semantic HTML5 tags that bring our wireframes closer to the code that developers use to create finished web sites

Any user experience professional, even those not yet working in mobile, can benefit by viewing these new techniques and being aware of how they can be used today and involving designers and developers in that conversation.﻿